Ellie II

Last painting of 2014. I finished off this year with one I feel good about. Here's hoping 2015 will be a year of making big strides in my painting efforts, and for any other painters out there I hope you paint great paintings and sell every last one.

God bless.

Ellie

Oil on Linen Canvas Panel - 12 x 14

Best and Brightest

Not that I'm either of those things, but I do feel very honored to have my recent painting "Bailey" accepted into the Scottsdale Artists School juried show of the same name. It was nice seeing my painting up on their website along with all of the other entrants which you can see here.

Bailey

Elizabeth Redux

I thought I'd try another go around of this same pose of Elizabeth from BayArts. This one is definitely more finished than my previous effort. I'm generally happy with this small, little painting but want to do more with the rest of the figure and environment in the future.

Oil on Canvas Panel - 11 x 14

Recent Friday Model

Not much to say here. It was pointed out to me that the highlights to the left and right of her lips may have gotten a little strong. That's possible. In a quick study things may go off like that. I'll just have to make sure I don't get lazy or impatient and really take measure of each brush stroke. That said I do think I like the shadow patterns on this one. Some definite positives to take away for the future.

Oil on Canvas Paper - 11 x 14

Portrait of Susan II

So, as I'd mentioned in my previous post I've been working on this piece for several nights. It's still a work in progress and it's been a bit of a struggle given that I only have a few hours a night to devote to it. It's mainly an issue because I prefer to keep the paint as wet as possible and because of my limited time some areas will dry faster than is ideal for me. The pattern for the dress, for example, was quite the challenge. Maintaing some sense of form under her skirt with all those shapes, as well as the concern that it's busyness might detract from the focal point were considerations that took a lot of concentration to overcome. I hope it worked. Overall it was at times either tortuous or hugely pleasurable to do.

Anyway, even though there are some areas that will require some massaging I thought I'd go ahead and post it anyway since this is for sure the most total time I've spent on a painting since I've started up this blog. I will post an update later after I've added my adjustments.

Oh, also in this particular shot you can hardly make out anything in the background. It's not 100% black. In person there are folds of drapery that can be seen but the camera it seems just can't quite pick them up.

Susan

Oil on Canvas - 18 x 24